Forced to slow down.

[RogerB]

Blimey - a key wine centre. May have to move France up my places to visit list. R-

[Brian]

I have some vintage Beaujolais Nouveau. Been keeping it for a special occasion!

[yelrow]

Yup, a goodly location here, for wine tours. Macon, only 90 mins. When we came here, we had little knowledge of the area. It was totally, by chance. My son, visited Annecy, told us how good it was. For following 8 years, we went regularly. When it came to settling in france, we knew we could not afford Annecy, so drew a 200 kilometre radius round it. Left uk, with car and caravan, and returned 2 weeks later, having bought ex vinyard, with 3 acres, here. If you locate Bourbon Lancy, on Google Earth, we are 15 minutes down the road at Neuvy Grandchamp. House called Aux Vignes, as was vinyard, before french closed all small ones to regulate wine quality. Only wine i knew before, was Blue Nun. Spoilt for choice now.

[Puddles]

No. Nobody has to use 24 hour services. I worked in a 24 hour 365 day environment so why shouldn’t everybody else.

My mum used to complain about shops opening on sundays so I used to say did she think gas and electricity should be turned off as well and no public transport

I Remember those Sundays you could walk down the high street and not see a soul just like a western ghost town with tumbleweed rolling along the road.
No traffic,no noise and no mobile phones and this was in London.We will never get those Sundays back,gone forever.

[Walkingthedog]

I remember them too, used to be no traffic when I drove to work on Christmas day. Lucky whatnots I used to think.

Must be better for people who work MON-FRI to have the whole weekend to go out not just saturdays.

According to the news that is exactly what high streets are like 7 days a week now, empty.

[yelrow]

Puddles, its sunday, here in rural france. All shops closed. No traffic, bar the occasional tractor. No different in medium size towns. All Banks and Bakers shut, mondays. We are still 25 years behind uk. great.

[yelrow]

WTD, i am afraid, high streets here going the same way. Towns either side of all, main streets have many empty shops. Lots of insurance offices, banks. Curious about the banks. They no longer have any money, other than whats in cashpoints, where maximum withdrawl, 300 euros.. If you want cash, more than allowance, you have to go to a bigger town. Great shame .

[teedoubleudee]

I have some vintage Beaujolais Nouveau. Been keeping it for a special occasion!

I always thought Beaujolais Nouveau was best drunk straight away rather than keeping. Oh, just noticed the smiley face El Oh El.

[Walkingthedog]

We were visiting a winery near the Blue Mountains in Oz. There was a bit of a 'wannabe wine snob' in our group. He asked the winemaker showing us around if I buy a case of your wine (what ever the wine was at the time) how long should I lay it down. Guy said it depends how long it takes you to get the cork out.

[yelrow]

Its been a good thread this. Put a few myths to bed, and hopefully might encourage the odd wine tourist. We are down to our last 40 bottles of red, so no stocking problems. Only downside for the buffs, is that Heather cooks with more red wine than she drinks. Tis so cheap here.